


Citizen Namor

by thecat_13145



Category: Invaders (Marvel), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Gen, POV Minor Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecat_13145/pseuds/thecat_13145
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How does Namor go from a hero to a villain? A journalist goes looking for answers</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gwenny Lou

“It was losing Toro that did it for Namor.” Gwen moved to allow her guest a better look at the framed photo. “About a week after the funeral, he completely vanished off the face of the earth. Until this morning.”

 

“You don’t sound like it was a great surprise.”

 

Gwen shrugged, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. “We thought he’d gone back to Atlantis. He’d said he’d do it often enough, once the war was over, but...” She shook her head and sat down, soothing out her skirts. “Every time he wanted to, it was like something happened to stop him. First, when Cap died, he felt, I think, that he had to stick around for us, for the kids.”

 

She sighed at the confusion at her guest’s face.

 

“To understand our relationship with Namor, you have to understand our relationship with the rest of the Invaders. It was...kinda like a package deal, you know?” She didn’t wait for her guest to reply. “Steve was like everyone’s big brother. The guy who gets straight As, and wins the football final, the kind of guy everyone likes, even you. We all loved Steve, trusted and admired him, and yet...” she sighed, putting her head in her hands. “Steve always seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and like every big brother, he never actually saw us as old enough to be involved. Maybe he was right, but we didn’t think so at the time. So while we trusted Steve, he wasn’t the guy we went to when things were tough. You...it sounds crazy, but you wanted to protect him.” 

She paused. “Jim was a bit simpler and at the same time more complicated. Toro called him Pappy. I guess that sums it up.” She hastened to explain. “He was like the father of one of your friends, a guy who’s said it’s O.K. for you to call him Jim, but who you still feel you should be calling Mr. Hammond. Not even Toro, honestly, I think trusted him with what was going on.” She moved, carefully, picking up a picture. 

“The Brits. Brian and Jac, Spitfire and Union Jack.” She shrugged. “You could tell they were siblings. I’m an only child, but...” She paused. “I already Said Steve was the big brother, who everyone wants to be like, everyone wants to impress, well Jac and Bri were...I don’t know how to describe it. They treated us like we were equals, never patronised or looked down on us. They were the ones we all went to with our problems whether it was nightmares or...other stuff.” She trailed off and was silent for a moment before continuing “Steve could make you think everything was going to be alright in the middle of battle, where you’re pinned down on all sides. Brian and Jac...they didn’t make you feel like everything was O.K., they made you feel you could get through this, survive it.” She smiled.

“Once, when I was really, really angry about the way my people were being treated back in the US, Brian took me to one side and told me the question I had to answer was not whether things would be better if we won, but would they be worse if we lost? That question, got me through some tough times, though not all of them.” She looked over at the picture of Toro, and blinked, clearing her eyes. “Forgive me, I’m rabbiting about the others, and it’s Namor you want to know about right?” She smiled. “Namor was like your older sibling, who’s just hit being a teen. They’re too old and too cool to want you following them around, but you do it anyway mostly to annoy them.”

She smiled. “We all, well that’s not true, Toro didn’t, but Bucky, me and Davey, we all trusted Namor right from the get go. I’ve no idea why, the evidence all said we shouldn’t and yet...”She shrugged. “He was our friend. We teased him, called him Subby and Fishface, and stuff like that. Sibling teasing, there was never any malice behind it, and God help you if one of us heard anyone else using our nicknames. He’d tell us not to call him that, chase us a bit, but it was all in good fun.”

“How do you know?”

She looked at him, as though she couldn’t think what else to do. “Because when Steve died, he stuck around. He’d no real reason to, but when we needed him, he was there. And other stuff too.” She raced on. “He’d tell Cap and Jim not to treat us like children, help us when we got in trouble, that sort of stuff.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know if he truly hates surface men, or if he just hates what we do.” She turned, stroking her fingers over a picture of an old man in a hospital bed. “Lord only knows we can all agree with that.”


	2. Willful Ignorance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davy's view

“People tend to forget two things,” Davy said, moving himself into a chair, and pulling the picture closer to him. “One, how young they were, and two, how old we were. School leaving age was 14 and I don’t think any of us stayed in the school room a moment longer than we had to. Well, except Gwenny maybe.” He shook his head. “Even those who were younger, Command wasn’t too strict about education. Providing we could read and write, they didn’t much care. Weren’t even too bothered if you couldn’t, properly. I could just about get by, but Toro was borderline illiterate. Hide it well, but...” He shook his head.

“Basically we were between 15 and 17. Jackie was 18, Brian and Roger were 20, Steve was 21. Alright, Jim was technically only 11, but he acted like he was 30. Namor...” he sighed. “None of us were sure, but I always thought he must be about Jac’s age, maybe a little bit older. Let’s say 19 for ease. So he was still a teenager, like us. He understood that we didn’t want to be sidekicks; we wanted to do our own thing, as my grandson would say. We made some stupid decisions, I’d never deny that, but Namor always was the one who told Steve to stop patronising us, to let us figure things out on our own.” He paused, biting his lip, wondering how far he could trust this guy. “He also understood, better than anyone I think, why we couldn’t say no. I mean, Brian understood, the guy had pretty much being in the same situation, but he...had his own reasons. People he had to protect. He glanced at the figure in the blue mask standing at the edge of the photo. “Steve was probably the only guy I ever met who could talk about honour and duty with a straight face, and he genuinely believed in America. No idea what he thought about the issues there and a part of me’s glad he wasn’t around for it, so I didn’t have to ask.” He looked pained. “But Steve was at his heart a simple soul. Good and bad, right and wrong. Couldn’t see the grey. Meant there was a lot of stuff about us, he couldn’t see.” He looked sad. “I don’t mean Steve was naive or anything, he just...couldn’t see it.” He shook his head. “Sorry, wandering a bit. What I’m trying to say is Namor always seems to get that we didn’t’ really a have choice in what we did, and I think he understood why we did it. But maybe I was wrong.” He glanced at the picture again. “Maybe he was just the only one who never tried to stop us.

“He was also, and this sounds stupid, the only one who seemed to get the complexities of a team with three guys and one girl, even if only two of us were interested in her. Steve and Jim seemed to think it was all too cute, thought it was first crushes like we were 12. Maybe it was acting as parents. They had to believe we were innocent.” He snorted. “If any of us were, four years of war smarted us pretty quick. People remember Nick’s guys, but they tend to forget that Steve was involved with Peggy, and they weren’t discussing the free world late into the night if you catch my drift.” He laughed. “Then there was Brian and Roger, and Jim trying to get with any female because he thought it would make him understand being human more...” he shook his head. “We definitely knew the facts of life.” He grinned. “And if we hadn’t, Command decided that this Canadian guy, Logan something, should give us a lecture on VD. Poor guy, wonder who he’d pissed off. Took it well though. Just told us to wear a rubber and not to complain. Good advice.

“But Namor, he seemed to get it. Basically pulled Toro aside one evening and told him pretty bluntly that Gwen liked him and if he didn’t like her he should tell her. Guess he took Namor’s advice as the next thing any of us knew, Gwenny punched him in the face. Always wondered if that was the real issue with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If it was really about other stuff.” He sighed. “But I’m wondering. Namor...he was the only one who understood. And we understood him.” He shivered. “And at the moment that scares the crap out of me. Cause I’m not completely sure I don’t understand what he’s doing now.”


	3. Howling Commando

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino gives one of his best interviews

What you have to understand, is once you’re Fury’s, then you’re his for life.” Dino Manelli’s hair was grey, but the smile that had captured the hearts of girls on three continents still had the power to charm. “And he’ll do what ever is necessary to protect you. Doesn’t matter what he thinks, moral or legal obligations, he’ll do what ever it takes. Doesn’t matter whether it’s blackmailing an MP over Pinky getting into some trouble with a policeman in a public bathroom, running through gunfire to grab Dum Dum or even pulling a few strings so that you got a night’s leave when you were serious about a girl, it doesn’t matter, Nick’ll do it. Still does in fact. Don’t think he’s got any personal views on mutants on way or the other, but he knows Logan, he knows Toro and he knows they’re both mutants. So he’ll keep the worst of the stuff away from them, stop the extremists. At the same time, he knows exactly how much damage a mutant can do if they’re out of control or under the wrong control so...” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, you must think I’m a senile old man getting caught up in the past, but I’m just trying to explain why Fury keeps crushing the article. And why none of the old guard will speak to you.”

“Except you.”

The smile flashed again. “I worked in the film industry. I know how much damage you guys can do if you’re let loose with your imagination. Better to give you the facts, rather than let you make them up. Doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty about going behind Sarge’s back though.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “Like I said, when you’re Fury’s then you’re his for life. The Howlin’ Commandoes were more like a family than a military unit, for all the trouble that caused Sam Sawyer, it worked in the long run. I still know I can call on Fury in an emergency , and he can call on me. The Invaders,” he shook his head. “They weren’t like that.”

“What do you mean?”

Dino sighed. “They were a proper resistant group, united by a common cause, but everyone had their own agendas. I’m not saying they didn’t work well together, because they did, and that they didn’t get something that I can’t explain to get the job done, but family,” He shook his head.

“Cap’s motives seem the most simple. He wanted to win the war, at the same time,” He shifted. “He represented the status quo. Don’t think he meant to, certainly he was always brilliant with us and Gabe, but he was quite willingly blinding himself to the problems in America. Maybe he thought they’d sort them out after the war, maybe he genuinely wasn’t aware of them, I don’t know. I just know there was a lot of stuff he turned a blind eye to that he’s spoken out against now. Maybe it’s just that the times have changed.

“Jim wanted to feel human, feel a part of who we were and what we did. He...tried everything, he really did, but it just didn’t work. That, plus his huge crush on Jackie, which everyone could see, made things worse.

“The Brits were the weird ones. Brian and Jackie, they both believed in their country, but they were fighting because their country was at war, if that makes sense. They didn’t really seem to believe one way or the other. They thought the Nazis were evil and needed stopping, never get me wrong on that, but their focus was on getting their home back. When Victory in Europe was declared, they went home. They were still working, trying to fix things up, but the War in the Pacific was seen by them as a very US affair, in spite of the British Troops in Burma. Maybe it was simply they were tired, Brian had been fighting for the longest of any of them.

“Then there were the kids. Caught in two worlds, they were. Half of the time being treated like they were 5 or 6, not old enough to be let out sight, like they should be playing. The rest, they were being used for dodgy stuff. Seriously, Nick and the rest of us, we picked up afterwards enough times, and more than once Bucky was in a dress with smeared lipstick and blood.” He shook his head. “Think Nick still feels he should have told Cap, or someone, maybe got them to stop, but Orders are orders” he sighed. “I never really had that much to do with Whizzer and Ms America. Didn’t really like them the few times I did, to be honest. What they were pedalling was fine for the home front, but for the battle ground. “ He frowned. “Not so good.

“And there was Namor.” He smiled to himself. “The communist in the Senate, as it were. Namor was loyal to Cap, to the Invaders, but the rest of us he couldn't’ give a dam about. He had his own reasons for being against the Nazis, but I don’t think he was ever convinced that we were much better. Cap I think was the only one who could ever really keep him in line. He gave the ones who came after him a hard time, but he stuck around until things got really bad. He’s a good man, well Atlantain, he’s just...confused at the moment.” He flashed the award winning smile again. “So now you’ve got your interview, can you please drop the subject and stop sending Fury’s blood pressure though the roof.”

“He only needs to be worried if he has something to hide.”

Dino shook his head. “Oh young one, he’s in intelligence. Everyone has something to hide.”


End file.
